Auto Pedia: Cars's BLOG: CrawFord STI's TimeAttacker

California. a place where you might visit the best known Subaru tuning shop in North America- CrawFord Performance. Not only is Crawford big among Subaru enthusiasts around the world, but millions of people have been exposed to their car building work following the Ken Block Gymkhana videos. let's focus on Crawford's unlimited class time attack car. Known as "Tony the Tiger" because of its orange and black colors, this 2008 STI is said to be the fastest new body style Impreza in the world

The team like to fool around with this big turbo garett, trying to see how high they can raise the boost and just how much horsepower they can get. During the last Redline event at Autobahn Country Club they ended up moving the boost all the way up to 36lbs, partly by accident. Quirt estimates that at 36lbs the car would produce around 640 horsepower and 750 ft lbs of tourque. They plan to keep pushing it to find out the true limits of the engine.

The suspension of the car is handled by Tein, who worked closely with the Crawford team to perfect the setup.

let's get into the car itself. All the work on the car was done in-house at the Crawford shop, with the exception of the carbon fiber fabrication.
The engine is a 2.5 base stroked to 2.6 liters with an 84mm stroker crank. The engine has billet pistons that were developed as a collabo between Crawford and JE. Apparently they have five times the life of the forged pistons that were used previously. Quirt says he's been amazed at the capability of the heads Subaru puts on their engines. This car only has light head work, with a higher valve spring rate that works better with the high boost its putting out. The engine is also running E85 injection, which is much more cost efficient than the race fuel that is usually used on engines built to this level.

The exterrior of the car retains similarties with the stock STI as a part of agreement with Subaru. All of the bumpers, fenders, and doors on the car are the OEM pieces, with the only carbon pieces being the roof, rear spoiler, and the hood. At around 2,750 lbs, Quirt says that the car is way too heavy - and they plan to remove about 400lbs from the car by doing whatever they can. A custom wide body kit is in the works, and it will be outfitted to both to the time attack car and to the Ken Block car.

Tarzan Yamada the driver of the car has an equal part of success that Crawford has in putting the car. Tarzan Yamada commutes from Japan to drive this car, providing not only his incredible driving talent, but valuable feedback on how to improve the car's setup. Tarzan enjoys driving this car so much that he wants to put the engine in his own Team Tarzan Cusco Impreza...

View of the front splitter and canards that have been outfitted to the OEM front bumper

A better side view of the redesigned STI 2008 model year. this car is a front runner in the Unlimited AWD class, taking numerous event victories along the way.

A better view of the scaffolding in the rear. The side windows have been replaced for plexiglass, but the stock glass window remains in the back.

Let's see how is the car from the inside, the transmission on the car remains stock. The fact that the stock unit can handle the power this car is making is a testament to how tough Subaru builds these things. The interior of the car has been stripped and equipped with a cage and a single Recaro bucket, but otherwise remains amazingly stock for an unlimited class car.

it's surprising to see how little had been changed on the interior of the car. The factory dashboard, center console, gauge cluster, and even steering wheel are still being used.

The sound of the heavily built flat-four exits the car through this Crawford original piece mean-looking exhaust system. a lot of the parts on this car will be making their way into the hands of customers around the world. This car also served as an development base for Ken Block's Gymkhana Two car, which can be seen in the opening shot of this story. Both the time attack car and the Ken Bock car share a lot of the same components.

the car is running 275 width Hankook C1's, but more rubber is needed to get all that power to the ground and to avoid oversteering on the track. That is one of the reasons for developing the wide body.

Once you start making big power the brakes are the first thing that need to changed. This car is running a Brembo Gran Turismo kit front and rear, which can be seen behind the 18x10.5 Volk CE28 wheels.

So far the car has exceeded all expectations, running faster than anyone thought with so many stock parts. there are many seconds to be shaved off lap times With beefier tires and a heavy diet.

When Crawford ran their old time attack car there wasn't a whole lot of competition, but now there is some very fast competition out there. Quirt is happy with this, as it keeps them motivated to make the car go faster and faster. Crawford considers the Mitsubishis of AMS to be their biggest rivals, with the new AMS Evo X car going head to head with this car in the unlimited class. There's also the new Sierra Evo, which is another target on the list. wait for intresting videos...